Logisys PS600A12 Power Supply Review

Introduction

We decided to buy several power supplies that are sold for less than USD 40 at Newegg.com to see if they are good options for users on budget. Our first victim is the Logisys PS600A12, a “600 W” power supply that comes with a fake 80 Plus logo. Let’s check it out.

The product box comes with a completely fake 80 Plus logo, see Figure 1. We can tell this is a fake right away because one of the requirements for getting the standard 80 Plus certification is to present power factor of at least 0.90, and therefore it is impossible for power supplies without PFC circuit (like this one) to get any kind of 80 Plus certification.

Figure 1: Fake 80 Plus badge

Half of the power supply casing is green, and the nylon sleeves used on the cables are lime green, making this probably the ugliest power supply we’ve ever seen.

Figure 2: Logisys PS600A12 power supply

Figure 3: Logisys PS600A12 power supply

The Logisys PS600A12 is 5 ½” (14 cm) deep, using a 120-mm sleeve bearing fan on its bottom (BaoDiKai BDH12025S). This unit doesn’t have an active PFC, being based on the outdated half-bridge topology.

The cables included are:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector, 15.7” (40 cm) long
• One cable with one ATX12V connector, 16.9” (43 cm) long
• Two cables, each with one six-pin connector for video cards, 16.9” (43 cm) long
• Two cables, each with two SATA power connectors, 16.5” (42 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
• Two cables, each with two standard peripheral power connectors, 16.9” (43 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
• One cable with three standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector, 16.9” (43 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors

On the good side, this unit has two connectors for video cards. On the bad side, there are only four SATA connectors. The wires used with the peripheral power connectors are 20 AWG, i.e., thinner than recommended. All other wires are 18 AWG. As a curiosity, the main motherboard connector has a -5 V (white) wire. This wire was removed from the ATX12V specification in January 2002, meaning that this unit uses a complete obsolete design.

Figure 4: Cables

Let’s now take an in-depth look inside this power supply.